


Sun-Dappled

by QuickedWeen



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Best Friends, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Hogwarts Seventh Year, I know I say that a lot, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining, Quidditch Player Louis Tomlinson, Quidditch World Cup, Ravenclaw Harry, SO MUCH FLUFF, Slytherin Louis, actually, but I mean it this time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-10
Updated: 2017-03-10
Packaged: 2018-10-02 10:38:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10216166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuickedWeen/pseuds/QuickedWeen
Summary: Louis and his best friend Harry are in their seventh year at Hogwarts, facing down their future together.Louis has been in love with his best friend for as long as he can remember, and he begins to feel a sense of urgency as the second semester begins.Finally he hatches a plan to tell Harry about his feelings on Harry's birthday.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [strangeangel014](https://archiveofourown.org/users/strangeangel014/gifts).



> Happy Birthday, Seester!!!! I really hope you enjoy this mutual pining friends to lovers Hogwarts AU with Louis in Slytherin that I forced you to ask for.
> 
> Love you!
> 
> P.S. Thank you to Rachel for the last minute beta!!!!!

The sun was just barely peeking through the single window in the Hogwarts Library, high above the table where Louis Tomlinson, star Slytherin Seeker, and his friends were studying.

It wasn’t often that Louis thought of himself as romantic or poetic, but sitting there, staring at his best friend Harry, he thought about how he wanted to figure out what the word “dappled” really meant. Everyone always used that phrase, “sun-dappled” but did anyone really know what it meant?

If he had to make up a definition, he would say it described how the minimal sunlight kind of surrounded Harry, managed to seek him out. But then again, he didn’t know. Harry would know.

“Hey, Hazza, what does dappled mean?”

Harry had been hunched over his roll of parchment scratching away at an essay on the goblins riots of the 18th century. He very carefully finished the sentence he was writing, put down his quill, and then looked up to give Louis his full attention.

“It’s like when the sun shines through the leaves and there are a bunch of little spots of sunlights. The spots are what makes it ‘dappled,’ at least that’s what I remember. Something with the spots. Why?”

Louis loved that Harry looked puzzled as to why Louis had even posed the question to begin with, but never, ever, in all their years of friendship had that ever stopped him from answering.

Unless Louis had something very specific to focus on, his attention span was rubbish. Harry was the only person who had ever understood that about him and never got annoyed. His mum, Jay, tried hard to be understanding, but he could tell when she got frustrated with him when he was younger - he had a bad habit of running off, especially as a young child before he knew better.

Well he shouldn’t say Harry never got annoyed. But, he had never abandoned Louis because of it, just rolled his eyes and moved on. Harry was just so... Harry. He was the kindest person Louis had ever come across, but he always, always, joined in Louis’ mischief.

That was how they met, actually.

Normally the Quidditch World Cup was played in the summer, but in the summer of 1998 the entire Wizarding world was still recovering from the death of You-Know-Who and the Battle Hogwarts that May. It had originally been scheduled for August 23rd, but the Ministry pushed it to March 10th of the following year. This had not been a popular decision.

The morning of the cup, Louis’ mum roused him from a deep sleep much too early in the morning. Thankfully, he was only four, so a spot of tea with breakfast, and he began bouncing off the walls waiting for his mum to get the ready.

Quidditch was, and always had been, Louis’ absolute favorite thing. He had all of the posters for all of the teams on his wall that he rotated out every year with the roster changes. Most kids’ dreams of becoming a professional Quidditch player faded away as they aged, not Louis, he just continued to train harder and harder. He became the secondary Seeker of the Slytherin team as a first year, which he knew was rare, and when their primary Seeker finished his seventh year, Louis took over.

That day, at the Quidditch World Cup, the most important thing that happened to Louis was his family sharing a Port Key with their new neighbors.

At the designated time, he and his mum trudged over the hill to the meadow where they were supposed to meet Anne Cox and her children. In the early morning light, Louis saw a tall, beautiful woman with long brown hair holding the hand of a little girl and a little boy. If they day hadn’t already been super amazing because of the World Cup, all of a sudden he had two children his age to play with!

“Harry, Gemma, this is Jay and her son Louis,” Anne introduced.

The boy, who had curly brown hair, was visibly nervous. When Louis asked him why, he didn’t answer right away. Louis went back to listening to his mum and Anne chat before he finally heard Harry’s voice, “I’ve never traveled by Port Key before,” he murmured against Anne’s leg.

Louis thought about that for a moment, “Well, that’s alright. We have to make sure we have a hand on it, so I can’t hold your hand. That’s what my mum does when I get scared. Maybe we can hold elbows. Like this,” Louis hooked his free arm into Harry’s leaving their other hands free.

Harry nodded carefully, and just like that, they were off. For the rest of the day at the Cup, they were inseparable. Anne had a much bigger tent, and begged Jay to spend the day with them, which she and Louis did happily.

Luckily, Harry was up for any game Louis wanted to play. Anytime Louis would lose interest and think of something else, Harry was right there with him. They had been best friends ever since.

Having a best friend was amazing. Falling in love with your best friend was not amazing. When Louis discovered two years before, in year five, that he liked boys, Harry was the first person he told.

“That’s great, Lou! Thank you so much for telling me!” Harry had enthused before wrapping Louis up in a bear hug. Harry had been comfortable with his own more fluid sexuality since they were young.

Six months later, at the start of year six, Louis realized it wasn’t boys that he was into, it was Harry.

Now, they were more than halfway through year seven, and Louis was beginning to feel a sense of urgency. When they left Hogwarts their lives would change, drastically, and who knows where he and Harry would end up? Try outs for all of the pro Quidditch teams began in September, so Louis would need to train all summer, and Harry was so incredibly smart he would surely get a job wherever he wanted. What if he wasn’t close by anymore? Louis didn’t know how to exist without him.

He was still bitter about the Sorting Hat putting Harry in Ravenclaw instead of Slytherin with him, and that had been six and a half years ago.

He was facing a dilemma. At the start of the school year, his housemate Niall had convinced Louis that Harry felt the same way, but… what if he didn’t? Harry was the loveliest person, and if he didn’t feel the same way he would reject Louis kindly and gently, but would insist that they remain friends and work through it. The thought made Louis’ stomach churn. He didn’t want Harry’s pity. He wanted to be with Harry. In every way.

“Louis!” Harry’s voice wrenched him from his reverie.

“What? Sorry.”

“I’ve said your name like ten times,” Harry chuckled. “Were you thinking about the match tomorrow?”

The match. Right. Big match against Hufflepuff. Louis wasn’t worried at all, but over the years whenever Harry asked Louis what he was thinking about and the truthful answer was ‘Harry,’ Louis always said it was Quidditch.

“Yeah, um, the match. I’m worried about the match.”

Niall cleared his throat and buried a giggle behind his fist. He was on the Slytherin team with Louis, and had been on the receiving end of Louis’ rant about how not worried he was about the match just the day before.

“Well, I’m sure you’ll be great, I’ll be there, I promise!” Harry grinned.

“On your birthday, Hazza? You should have a lie in, relax.”

“Of course not, Lou. I’ve never missed one of your matches, I couldn’t start now. Plus, I can actually cheer for you this time.” Harry absolutely hated when Slytherin played Ravenclaw because his loyalties were always very divided. He fretted about it every year. “Can I wear your scarf again for the match?”

“Sure thing, Hazza. I’ll give it to you at breakfast tomorrow.”

Harry smiled once again and went back to his parchment scratching.

 

Later that afternoon, Niall and Louis were headed down to the dungeons when Niall stopped to hit Louis’ upside the head.

“Fuck! What the hell was that for?”

“You. Are. An. Idiot,” Niall explained, emphasizing each word carefully.

“Why? What did I do?” Louis asked, genuinely confused.

“What did you do? Oh, no. No. It’s what you haven’t done that’s the issue,” Niall sounded genuinely angry, which began to worry Louis.

“What do you mean, Ni?”

Niall put a hand on Louis’ shoulder and bodily turned him around so they were face to face. “Harry. Is. In. Love. With. You.”

Louis could immediately feel the blush rise up his neck. He fidgeted with the collar of his robes, needing to relieve himself of the heat around the stiff fabric.

“How do you know, though, Niall?” Louis pleaded. He needed solid evidence. This was important.

“Louis. He just asked you if he could wear your scarf. For your match. If this were 1950’s America he would be on his pastel colored bed with his heels crossed talking about going steady.”

Louis didn’t answer, because he had absolutely no clue what Niall was going on about.

“Ugh. We really need to get to you see some muggle films,” Niall rolled his eyes.

 

Louis had trouble getting to sleep that night. He tossed and turned thinking about what Niall had said to him, well, screamed at him. He needed to tell Harry about his feelings. He couldn’t go on like this.

When he woke up, he was struck with a bit of genius. He opened his trunk and dug through the constant clutter that lined the bottom until his finger brushed something small and cool to the touch.

That would do it.

 

\- - -

 

Harry sighed as he watched Louis speed by on his broom. His best friend was so beautiful. It just wasn’t fair, Harry thought, as Louis’ thighs clenched to steer his broom around a Hufflepuff Chaser, narrowly avoiding a collision. Harry was pretty sure he had done that on purpose to try and get in the poor girl’s head.

He smirked to himself as he dipped his nose down, burrowing the bottom half of his face into Louis’ green and black Slytherin scarf. It smelled like him; warmth, sunshine, and boy.

Louis had been acting odd that morning during breakfast. He had wished Harry ‘Happy Birthday’ with his usual enthusiasm, and made sure to hand over his scarf like Harry had asked, but he had still seemed distracted.

“Where’s my present, Lou?” Harry had joked. In years past, Louis had insisted on giving Harry his present at breakfast, not having the patience to wait any longer than that. He eventually also confessed that he liked to see Harry appreciate, or use, his gift for the rest of the day - no matter what the gift was.

When he hadn’t handed anything over first thing, all of their friends had just stared at him.

“It’s, uh... it has to wait until after the match,” Louis stammered.

“Okay, Lou!” Harry had agreed, but Niall had scoffed loudly, and the rest of their friends had continued to openly stare.

Harry would have agreed to anything Louis said, as long as it kept him nearby.

His best friend in Ravenclaw, Jade, flipped her hair over her shoulder and leveled Harry with a look.

“So what was that about at breakfast?”

“What do you mean?” Harry knew what she meant.

“Louis didn’t give you a gift. Louis _always_ gives you a birthday gift. He insists on being the first one. You might say it was odd that he didn’t give you one at all.”

“He said it would have to wait. Maybe it’s an experience, not a thing, you never know,” Harry added defensively.

“Well, I certainly know what experience you’d like for him to give you…” she trailed off.

Harry gasped in shock, “Jade! Oh my god!” His face was turning bright red as he looked around to make sure no one had heard her. “You can’t just say stuff like that,” he hissed.

“It’s true, Harry. The entire school knows you’re dancing around each other. The two of you are the only people on the entire grounds that are oblivious to it,” she said, gesticulating wildly at the Quidditch pitch like it could encompass all of Hogwarts.

Harry brought his hand up to cover his eyes in embarrassment. “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean,” he forced out.

“Alright, well, you should figure it out soon, because the vultures are circling, and by vultures I mean Nick Grimshaw,” she pointed at the announcer's booth. Nick, another Slytherin in their year, had been told off multiple times for complementing Louis’ bum over the loudspeaker during Quidditch matches.

Louis was a natural flirt and showman, so if he wasn’t actively in pursuit of the Snitch, he would turn around and give a little wink to the crowd. Jealousy roiled in Harry’s gut every time.

“I know, I know,” Harry sighed, “I’ll figure it out. I’ll tell him, I will. I just don’t know that I could handle it if he rejected me.”

Jade rolled her eyes. “He’s not going to reject you. He is so far gone for you, it’s really quite amazing how you’ve missed it. The two of you should be studied.”

 

Slytherin won, of course. Louis caught the Snitch and Harry had screamed his lungs out. They were undefeated for the year so far. Harry was so glad their record was so good for Louis’ final year on the team. He always felt a little bad about secretly rooting for Louis against his own house team, but it couldn’t be helped.

Afterwards, they gathered at lunch waiting for Louis and Niall to return. When they did, Louis was holding a small box with a bow on it. He placed in on the table in front of Harry, but continued to stare at it as if he wanted to take it back right away.

“This is your present,” Louis said, definitively.

“Thanks, Lou. I can see that?” Why was Louis still acting so odd?

“Yeah, um, please open it later. And then, come find me, you know, when you’re ready.” Now Harry knew something was wrong, but Louis seemed so nervous, he didn’t want to push.

“Okay, Lou. I have to head up and do some homework this afternoon, but I’ll come find you for dinner? Yeah?”

Louis met his gaze, finally, but he kept flicking his eyes back down to the box. He nodded once, and then went quiet while they listened to Niall give a play by play of the match they had all watched.

Harry felt Jade elbow him in the side under the table, but he ignored her.

 

If Harry ate lunch faster than normal, no one commented on it. Finally he was back in his dorm, and he very gingerly unwrapped the package.

When he lifted the lid of the box, he saw a small note. Underneath the note was a gleaming and golden Snitch.

Confused, he opened the note.

“ _Two gifts. One from each of the most important days of my life_.”

Not helpful, Lou, Harry thought with a scoff.

Harry rolled the Snitch over between his fingers. It was heavy, solid, like the ones they used for official school matches. He was grateful, of course, but he remained in the dark as to why this was his birthday gift.

He continued to play with it as he reached over to his school books, pulling out the homework he needed to work on, a good solid foot of parchment on the goblin riots. He had started it in the library the day before, but hadn’t been able to finish.

Trying to juggle his books, his parchment, and his quill resulted in the Snitch falling from his grasp and landing on the cloud of his duvet. As it fell, Harry heard a faint clinking noise. That was odd. Was it broken?

He put the books down and picked it up again, this time holding it between his thumb and forefinger, jiggling it back and forth. There was a definite metal on metal sound coming from the small gold orb. That was when it hit Harry - there was something inside it! He had heard Louis talk endlessly about the mechanics of a Snitch, definitely enough to remember that Snitches had flesh memories.

That brought Harry up short. He had been touching it for the last few minutes and nothing had happened. Plus, it was only the person who touched it first that could open it again, and Harry didn’t remember touching a Snitch aside from some old beat up ones at home. Nothing like this perfectly maintained one.

He picked up Louis’ note again. Two gifts. His other gift had to be inside, so the Snitch had to be from one of the important days, but which one?

They had so many memories together, the riddle had Harry wracking his brain. It would be easier if he knew what was inside so he could use process of elimination.

Goblin riots that were centuries old could not wait, so he hastily wrote out a conclusion for his essay. Thankfully, History of Magic was his best subject, so it was easy for him to pull something out of thin air while only using half of his brain power.

What was in the Snitch?

 

When Harry finished, he quickly rolled the parchment back up and stored it so he could bring it to class on Monday morning.

Louis’ puzzle was eating away at him. He hated an unsolved mystery.

Flying down the stairs of Ravenclaw Tower, Harry almost barrelled straight into Jade.

“Hazza, calm down, where’s the fire?” She asked with her soft voice. Too soothing for Harry’s current mood.

“Gotta go - gotta find Lou,” he rushed out.

“Take a breath, babes. You’re no use to him like this,” she snickered. Harry was too impatient for this. He took one large breath in, and let it out in one huff.

“Bye, Jade!” he called out as a continued down the stairs.

 

When he finally made it to the entrance of the Slytherin dungeons, Louis was standing there waiting for him, fiddling with his wand.

“Lou,” Harry wheezed out as he tried to catch his breath.

Louis’ head snapped up, “Hazza! Are you alright?”

Harry nodded. Louis stared at him for another few seconds before he grabbed his hand and dragged him back up to the courtyard. They ducked around a few corners, Louis clearly knew where they were going, and when Harry thought they had reached a dead end, Louis gestured to a bench nestled under a window.

The sun was low in the sky, nearing dusk, and it shone in Harry’s eyes for a moment before he adjusted by moving their bodies closer together. Louis had sat down on the bench facing him, so Harry mirrored his position and brought one knee up between them.

Louis stared down at his hands for a moment, took a breath, then looked up at Harry. Louis’ train of thought got immediately derailed, and Harry watched it play out on his face.

“Dappled,” Louis chuckled, his expression softening out of the worried frown it had been.

“Lou?” Harry was seriously concerned, Louis was still acting weird, as he had been all day.

“Hazza. Did you get my present?”

Harry lifted his hand up where he was clutching the Snitch so hard his knuckles were white.

“I did, Lou, but I don’t get it. I tried to figure it out, I really did!” Should he have been able to? He felt awful that he had probably ruined Louis’ very thoughtful gift.

“It’s okay, love, I shouldn’t have given you a puzzle with no answer. I know how much you hate that.”

Harry’s heart stopped. Louis called him ‘love.’ Louis had never called him that before. He had called everyone under the sun ‘love’ but never Harry.

“I need you to know something, Harry.” Now his full first name? Harry’s heart was pounding straight out of his chest.

Gingerly, Louis brought his hand up and curled his fingers around Harry’s wrist. He flipped Harry’s closed fist upside down, and the Snitch glinted in the light. Without commenting, which Harry was grateful for, Louis peeled Harry’s fingers back, and he finally relaxed his grip, letting the Snitch rest in the cup of his palm.

Louis picked the Snitch up by the sides, and it’s wings unfurled, splitting in the middle, opening the compartment.

Inside, there lay a beat up, slighty tarnished, silver Quidditch World Cup commemorative coin from 1998. Harry knew, because he had one as well.

“What?” That was all his brain could supply to his mouth.

Louis cleared his throat, “This is from the very first day we met,” he began with purpose laced in his voice, “And that day is beyond a shadow of a doubt the most important day of my life. You’re my best friend, Hazza.”

Harry’s eyes began to burn. Hope soared in his chest, not sure where Louis was going with his description, but he had also said ‘best friend.’ Harry rolled his lips together to try and keep quiet, and stave off his tears.

“And this Snitch. Well, um, this Snitch is from the match today.”

Today? What did Louis mean, today? He thought back and didn’t understand why today was so important. His furrowed brow must have betrayed his confusion.

“Today is important, because, well… I’m in love with you.” He rushed out and mumbled the last part of the sentence, and for a split second Harry didn’t know what he had said.

Then it hit him, “You’re in love with me?” Harry asked, tears beginning to fall down his face, smile breaking through.

Louis studied him for a minute before he brought his hand up to cup Harry’s jaw, thumbing a tear away. “Yeah. I am.”

Harry didn’t know what to say, so he did the only thing he could and threw himself at Louis, pressing their mouths together. There was too much teeth, and too many of Harry’s tears, but his heart soared anyway.

All his dreams had come true. His best friend really loved him back. His lungs began to burn and he pulled back to look at Louis again before they both burst into laughter.

Suddenly, Harry was very glad Louis had found a secluded corner of the castle.

They definitely did not make it to dinner.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed it! 
> 
> If you did the fic post is [here](http://becomeawendybird.tumblr.com/post/158247363346/sun-dappled-by-quickedween-37k-louis-and-his)!  
> Come say hello on [tumblr](http://becomeawendybird.tumblr.com)!


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